California Quail Pair

Very beautiful image.

Now that is inspiring. One of my favorites of yours too. Love the set. Great work Tim.

It just doesn't get any better! Thanks for sharing this, Tim.

Lucky you, Tim!
A great shot indeed.

Superb as always Tim! Beautiful setting, BG and poses from both birds.

Beautiful shot Tim, great job on getting the pair. Lovely composition.

This is a gorgeous image Tim in every way.

Regards,

Rob

Great shot Tim, excellent setting for this pair

Gorgeous shot!

WOWness Tim. Love it.

Sweet image is the first thought I had upon seeing this photo. Technically and compositionally beautiful.

Excellent shot. Regards Antino

Wonderful image! Lovely colors and details. Glad the HA was equally perfect from both birds.

Wonderful image Tim!!!

So good. Love the setting and the poses on both birds.

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. I just wanted to add that I strive to use only native plants in my setups, and all of these used here are wild native plants growing in my yard.

James, I use different sharpening settings depending upon how I perceive what the image needs. Lately, I have been using Topaz Labs Detail 3. I typically decide between Detail 3 or CS6 smart sharpen or USM. For this image I used Detail 3 with the following settings:

Small Details: +0.12
Small Details Boost: -0.19
DEBLUR Blur Size: +0.05
Suppress Artifact: +0.50

I always apply my sharpening to the subject only and apply it at twice the size of the final output. So if the image to go on my website is going to be 1200 pixels on the long side, then I do my noise reduction and sharpening at 2400 pixels. This way you can be fairly aggressive, but it looks smooth and natural when reduced to the final 1200 pixels.

Fantastic, Tim!

Sweet shot Tim

Great shot, Tim.